>> health care. i had to take this on. somebody, sooner or later, had to do it. >>> it has been a very busy thursday. we have just watched the president speaking live in cleveland, ohio. there he is, using a steel plant as his backdrop. the president talked about the importance of increasing energy efficiency and boosting american manufacturing and trade but he did manage to get in a word about the dominant issue of the day. >> over the last three years, health care costs have grown at the slowest pace on record. that makes america more affordable places to do business. >> the president also hailed republican ohio governor john kasich for his decision to expand medicaid coverage as part of the affordable care act in his state. it comes hours after a contract conference and press conference in the white house briefing room around mid-day where the president vowed to pressure and let insurers renew for one year health plans that would otherwise be canceled. >> this fix wont solve every problem for every person. but its going to help a lot of people. doing more will require work with congress and ive said from the beginning, im willing to work with democrats and republicans to fix problems as they arise. this is an example of what i was talking about. we can always make this law work better. >> the change would only apply to those who have current policies, not meeting affordable care act standards, or have had their policies canceled. insurers would have to inform customers of other aca options and those buying new policies could not purchase those substandard plans. the reversal on the issue comes in response to disgruntled customers and growing rebellion among some democrats in congress. senator marry landrieu from louisiana has proposed a bill with a similar stated purpose allowing people to keep their current health plans and she responded to the presidents remarks this afternoon. >> the presidents announcement this morning was a great first step and we probably will need legislation to make it stick. however, do not underestimate the power of a presidential directive. >> no, dont do that unless you are the speaker of the house. mr. boehner said the house still plans to vote on friday on republican frayed uptons much more radical bill to allow insurers to sell new policies to customers using their same old discriminate policies and used his usual constructivism of the presidents nature. >> the only way to fully protect the american people is scrap this law once and for all. you cant fix this government-run health care plan called obama care. this is going to destroy the best health care delivery system in the world. >> two things. its not called obama care and its not the greatest health care delivery system in the world but lets move on and get to our panel. with me in new york is joey reed and in washington, msnbc political analyst david cohen and msnbc political analyst professor michael eric dyson. joy, 47 million people in this country have been living without any health insurance whatsoever and john boehner says its the best delivery system of the health care in the world. >> it is for insurance companies. it gets to the point what has happened over the argument of health care reform. the niche is goat to the 47 million people and avail them of the opportunity to have a health covered? at threatening florida. health care reform not to the 47 million people 1.5 and 3.5 million people who have insurance but are buying in the smallest but lucrative part of the health insurance market for insurance. decades they have been able to sell particularly to younger men and people without families and these business people. these policies have high deductibles and low interest rates and limited benefits and they are extraordinarily profitable for the insurance industry and affordable health care act made those illegal. the insurance industry sent out letters saying the affordable health care act will take your policy away and sometimes tell you what your options were and sometimes they didnt but now because of the pressure from really the medias narrow focus on that 1 to 3 million people, now change that will happen they get to keep making money. >> for another year. >> for another year on the junk policies. >> professor dyson, first, it was the website and then the 5% in the individual market. now the reince priebus whose name sounds like a greek shampoo says, quote, the president has a serious trust deficit with the american people after his lies about obama care. the president is the problem. but hasnt the president been the problem all along for to try to introduce to this country a health care system that might cover all of us? >> another add vaive is unabashed to reality. the reality is this. joy was talked about this thing we have narrowed our focus on a few million people not to dismiss them but the 44 million other people out there who had no kind of plan. you have to have enough privilege to have some problems. those who are having problems now have a certain level of privilege and buy-in. we are talking about people, for the most part, dont have those kind of problems because they had no health care at all. they used the emergency ward as health care maintenance which bankrupts not only the health care system, but also causes a kind of financial drain because of loss work and other forms of unemployment that result from ill health. when you put all of this together, i tell you, listening to president obama today, made me proud and it made me feel good because here was a man willing to take on what is an social problem and hard political problem and fix it with, i think, serious application of common sense and reason to a big problem. yes, the health care delivery system in terms of the technology has been baffled in one sense but, ultimate, i think it will debunkling will turn into something great and three, four years from now maybe even a year from this, this will be a marginal footnote a smooth and productive health care delivery system. >> yet, david, the last time i saw republicans salivating at the prospect of this president stumbling was after the, what, the first presidential debate with mitt roimney. would you like to remind us what happened after that? >> i think the guy won. >> yeah. i think he did. >> i think the fellow who was in favor of obama care won a majority of the vote. in fact, very large majority of the vote and the fellow would was against obama care, if i recall correctly got 47% of the vote. a lot going on here. i do think that, you know, much is at stake. not only obama care and affordable care act is an important policy for the reasons that joy and michael just enumerat enumerated, but also a philosophical issue here. the big fight we have been having the five years in this country is more ideological in previous areas is the role of government and where the government is the problem and which the republicans and -- >> but, david! we have been lied to about sarah palin telling us this is a controlled substance! i lived under a government-controlled subsidized system of medicine and that is not what this is! >> this is not the government taking over the health care system here. its the government creating policy that will make the health care system work better. >> right! >> and be moinclusive but still the government being proactive and doing something about a social problem. if obama is able to pull that off and implementation goes smoothly and a lot of benefits which we have talked about on this show, then the republicans have really no reason to -- the new republican party is about one thing -- government sucks and you shouldnt trust it and anyone who tries to do anything via government is the enemy and wants to harm and destroy america. and why the stakes are so high, not from the 47 million without health insurance, but for the future of the republican and democratic parties here. >> is david right about underlying narrative? >> i definitely think he is right and, martins, its interesting that you mention this idea of a government takeover. what is interesting about this and part of the reason the affordable health care act is difficult to administer the people putting this together understood the only way to get a big social change like this was to get from the vaunted middle class saying this will not affect you. you have employer-based health care system if you lose your job or change jobs your health care goes away because it was stuck to your employer and tied you to your employer to get this service. i think what frightens republicans and why they consider it a government takeover is people who hoof insurance. the government offering subsidies or the government covering you by expanding medicaid. they despise the working poor, the guy at mcdonalds and mom working at walmart taking care of her kids. >> work two jobs to survive. >> and three. people feel becausive of their own responsibility arent well off. why taxpayers who have insurance, why should we give them anything? i think it gets to the fundamental question of a subsidy to people to them is welfare and even the white house has been reluctant to talk about the medicaid piece. >> professor dyson, you preach often in churches. when you listen to this kind of rhetoric as brilliantly elucidated by joy the rank contempt for anyone who might have a moderate income, what do you conclude? >> this is a repudiation of the ethic of care and concern and compassion that has been produced at the heart of christianity and all great religions. not just christianity. here is the real tragedy here. that the people who claim to be defending the middle class are preventing people from an escalator into the middle class. secondly what they are trying to do as joy has already talked about is to really renounce what they fail to be os stten sibably subsidies. they dont want to dole out all kinds of benefits in advantage. >> america? when do you want to stop? >> the list goes on and on. dont call it a comeback. we have been here for years. the reality is they dont want those kind of subsidies haneleded over in small and minimal percentage to those who deserve it the most. welfare exists in this country. its not rich, the relaty and for the well-healed and for the deeply entrenched and for the well-established but those who are left to their own devices are those who are subjected to the most vicious forms of, if you will, socialism for real because they get cast out on the bounty of the american public common will and that is drying up. there is an evaporation of compassion and investment in those who are vulnerable. when i hear this the gospel that stands against the great figure named jesus who stood on behalf of the poor. >> david? final word. >> i cant beat the sermon we just heard. >> nobody could. >> but i think there is another point here too. and that is the president has to keep convincing, not just americans, but even members of his own party. >> he does. >> youve seen him the last day or two, that this is the right thing to do. to cover the uninsured which are not working poor, it goes pretty high in some ways into the middle class. theres a social value to this. its not just about keeping health care costs efficient which is a good part of it, but there is a value here. its part of our social fabric and because the fight, republicans wont give up the fight. he has to keep relitigating but not doing it as a lawyer, releading this fight again and again and again so its not just, you know, burdened and bogged down by the fights over the website or the 1.5 to 3 million people who got cancellations and could get a better deal under obama care and that is something that, i think, he hasnt done as well as he could. >> no. >> because the republicans the way they are fighting this, they are never going to let go and the president has to keep coming back with better arguments as well. >> indeed. >> as being competent and deliver the news. >> had they not posed him in the first place they could have got the americans to stand behind this and get the americans to cooperate come together. >> if i could say one last thing to give fyi. fred upton who is fighting to give you a sense of who the president is fighting, his top donor was blue cross / blue shield. >> oh, wonderful. joy reed and david and black socrates professor, michael dyson, thank you very much. >>> as the president appeals to democrats in congress, we will ask one house member for her reaction to his affordable health care fix. stay with us. huh...fifteen minutes could save
Posted on: Fri, 15 Nov 2013 04:36:49 +0000
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